UNESCO’S #GlobalMILWeek
For UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week, Ghost Writers decided to continue working on our project by expanding on our theory regarding the representation of minorities in media.
To begin with, media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and understand the messages they are sending and that is why MIL Week was of vital importance to our efforts. To be more specific, the media impacts people’s perception on all social issues and different social groups. One of the core goals of media literacy is facing racial, gendered and sexually orientated representation in media. Furthermore, it is, in fact, crucial that the public understands how the narratives in media impact the real-life experience of different groups, especially minority groups since they are the ones who feel unheard, mistreated, and invisible, or even excluded. However, that should not be the case as deep down we are all the same. We are all humans. Besides, for groups who just see negative stories about themselves, they can feel misunderstood and angry. We need to do a much better job at ensuring that the media landscape reflects the world as it is -a diverse, complex, multicultural community with people of all gender, sexuality, race, and identities.
Aside from our own news platform, we decided to encourage people to take a break from social media as they can indeed be very harmful to one’s mental health. Not only can they be overwhelming, but also, they support and promote ideals and stereotypes which are not based on real facts. That is why we should put our phones away every once in a while, and just focus on making ourselves our main priority. After all, at the end of the day we are all we have.
To enhance our voice, we viewed UNESCO’s laws and practices regarding media literacy. The former is all about shaping and understanding the restless dynamic of information. Specifically, the first law is all about the equality of information providers as none is more relevant than the other, while the second law highlights the importance of the expression of opinions. To put it differently, “every citizen is a creator of information/knowledge and has a message. They must be empowered to access new information/knowledge and to express themselves. MIL is for all — women and men equally — and a nexus of human rights”. Next in line is the third law who discusses the neutrality of information. Sometimes it may be biased, but others it may be completely objective. The last laws emphasize not only that information is a way of communication, but also “it is a lived and dynamic experience and process. It is complete when it includes knowledge, skills and attitudes, when it covers access, evaluation/assessment, use, production and communication of information, media and technology content”. Meanwhile, the latter prioritizes marginalized people’s voices to be heard and encourages failure and success, while being using methods that are supporting and inclusive.
All in all, as a team, we believe that promoting media and information literacy is quite essential to help the representation of minorities in media. It is our duty to stay informed and updated with the latest trends in technology, as well as care for the people next to us. And as I already said, we are all human and we are all equal!
Stay tuned for more!
Marianina Deligianni evadinou John Reizis Σοφία Α. Alexandra S
